Page 43 of Entombed By Blood
Evelyn’s eyes shine with animalistic hunger as she stares at me. There’s lust there too, and I have enough of her venom left in my veins that the idea of dragging her out of the tub and fucking her against the wall is too damn tempting.
“You’ve had enough,” I say, keeping my voice level.
Evelyn’s gone through enough trauma recently as it is. Screwing her head up with sex right now would be wrong.
As if my words are all she needs to come back to herself, she blinks and glances at the bathroom, which is filled with her drained thralls.
Silas and Draven have yet to make it back onto their feet, and Vane is leaning heavily against the wall, licking Draven’s puncture marks in his wrist to heal them.
We’re a mess, and she can see it. Her body is healing from the silver, and her mind is catching up quickly. I can see the wheels turning in her brain; and there’s a calculating gleam in the way she surveys her surroundings that I don’t trust.
“Don’t even think about running,” I growl, hating the way she winces at my tone.
Damn it. I could’ve said that better.
“Where would I go?” she whispers, trying to push out of the bath, only for her arms to give out on her. Her second attempt is foiled by the slippery coating of her own blood that covers the marble.
A more courteous lycan might have offered her a hand, but Cain has already seen enough of how far our pack is willing to go to keep this woman alive. My indifference keeps her, and everyone else, safe. Well,safer,anyway.
“Clean yourself up, then find my office,” I order, buttoning my cuff and heading for the door. “You’ll spend the time reading while the others recover. The rest of you, grab some food and sleep this off.”
I don’t give her time to object as I stride from the room.
“Well, that was lovely,”Finley mumbles in my ear.“Maybe cut her some slack? You might have missed it, but she was just poisoned.”
“Babying her won’t help her survive,” I whisper, barely moving my lips. “She has Silas and you to worry about her hurt feelings. Let me focus on keeping us all alive.”
Finley doesn’t respond to that, and I enter my office in silence, mulling through what just happened now that the drama is over.
Evelyn followed every order Cain gave her without hesitation. That could make extracting her difficult. If she resists us, our job is going to be a lot harder than it should be. None of us will risk harm coming to her, but I doubt she’ll extend us the same courtesy.
Her impassive face as she pressed that knife to Vane’s neck flicks through my mind. He’s not blocked her from his thrall bond, yet she went for him like it didn’t exist.
It makes sense she’d go for the hybrid first, believing him to be the biggest threat. She was wrong, but it’s better to let her keep her misconceptions while we’re unsure of her loyalties. Common sense says years of imprisonment by Cain should have broken any loyalty she has to him, but if it has, she’s doing a damn good job of hiding it.
I take a seat at my desk and wait, running over all of my interactions with her in my mind. My earlier assessment that she’s broken seems wrong. She’s already functioning at a much higher level than she was when she was first released.
For all the silver she’s been exposed to, she should—by rights—still be feral. She’s had her moments, and the metal still burns her, but she’s much saner than I expected. A quirk of age, or a result of being one of Cain’s direct descendants, perhaps?
My list of unanswered questions about this woman only grows longer, and I huff out a sigh as I settle back into my chair and wait for her to arrive. Perhaps time alone with her will grant me some answers.
Chapter Fourteen
Gideon
My musing is cutoff by the knock at the door. I’m so deep in my thoughts that I didn't even hear her approach.
“Enter,” I call, pulling the tablet out of my pocket.
She's cleaned up perfectly. Her hair is damp from her shower, and she's back in another of those stupid dresses. Her eyes are wide, haunted, and rimmed in red; the only clue that the events of the last few hours have affected her.
The alpha in me hates the mind games the vampires play. My instincts are pressing me to comfort and coddle our new pack mate like Silas would. Instead, I ignore the urge and hold out the tablet.
“There's a chair in the corner. Familiarise yourself with this. It's yours.”
She takes the tablet, and I pretend to ignore the way her hands shake as she holds the slim piece of glass between us like a shield. I don’t care if she thinks I’m a bastard, as long as she’s alive to do so.
She'll learn better if she teaches herself.
